An electronic bay; as used herein, comprises a supporting frame with a multiplicity of panels or chassis attached to the frame and wired with pigtail cables, pigtail being defined as a cable in which the conductors in the cables are attached only at one end to the panels or chassis mounted in the bay. The bay is wired at a fabrication site and then transported to a remote site for installation. More particularly, the invention is two-fold, one being the method or process for mounting the wired bay onto a cart and transporting the cart and bay to the installation site and the other being the cart itself.
The normal and conventional practice has been to wire an electronic bay at its installation site. In other words, an outer frame is installed and then the chassis or panels are attached or mounted to the frame and the cable conductors then wired to the various panels and/or chassis. It was thought to be too cumbersome and unreliable to wire the bay at one location and then transport it with its multiple cables to another location for installation. This became even more so with the advent of optical fiber cables for wiring electronic bays because it is critical to avoid sharp bends in the optical fiber conductors.
An electronic bay, as defined hereinabove, is wired at a fabrication site with optical fiber conductors producing a multiplicity of pigtail cables extending from the panels or chassis mounted in the bay. The wired bay is placed on a cart and the cables wound around cable guides on the cart in a manner to avoid any sharp bends in the cable and the cart with attached bay is shipped, usually in a shipping crate, from the fabrication site to the location of the installation site. At the installation location, the cart with attached bay is removed from the shipping crate and transported to the installation site where the bay is put into place, the cables unwound and the cart detached from the bay and removed to make it available for transporting another wired bay. In the preferred embodiment the cart has a pair of spaced-apart rigid frames with the cable guides located in the space between the frames. For transporting the wired bay, the cart is raised to a vertical position alongside the wired bay resting preferably on casters on one end of the cart. The cables are wrapped around the pedestal-style cable guides and the cart is swung around so that the bay rests against the cart. The bay is then removably attached to one of the frames of the cart and then the cart is lowered to a horizontal position and moved, on wheels which are attached to what is then the lower frame, and the combination is then wheeled into a shipping crate. After arrival at the location of the installation site the cart with attached bay is wheeled out of the crate over to the installation site where it is raised to a vertical position. The bay is then detached from the cart, bolted or otherwise mounted to its installation supports and the cables are unwound from the cart and the cart is removed for reuse.
Significant cost reduction has resulted from being able to wire the bay at a fabrication site instead of having the wiring done at the installation site. The use of a cart with the cable guides so that the optical fiber cables are wound without encountering the danger of any sharp bends eliminates or minimizes the danger of damage to the cables in transit.